The twenty-three-year-old, better known as gnash, built the breakup anthem in his garage and rode the wave of the song’s success across the country and into the top ten.

He has picked up steam since then and since his last stop in Philadelphia, graduating from The Foundry in Fishtown to a bigger stage at the legendary TLA on South Street this Saturday.

“I can’t wait. I wanted to play TLA my whole life,” explains gnash over the phone on the ride between tour stops. “Every time we’re in Philly we always go hang out at South Street to hit cheesesteaks and everything. There’s a music store there I really like too, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

gnash’s stop at The TLA is part of his Sleepover Tour, named after the singer’s sleepy sound and the emotive communal nature of the sleepover itself.

“Sleepovers are places where people get together and tell stories and get emotional,” gnash describes. “You know, hang out and get nappy. Everybody’s just feeling good and sleeping and it’s been awesome.”

As great as that sounds, gnash’s past sleepover experience wasn’t always quite as nice.

“I didn’t actually really like sleepovers very much to be honest,” he says. “My dad would always have to pick me up from them early.”

“It’s too far away from home, but as I got older I started to like them,” he laughs.

As the tour continues, gnash doesn’t seem to feel the pressure to duplicate the success of “i hate u, i love u.”

“We’re just gonna keep doing it the way I know how it works, which is making music that connects with people and making music that people understand and want to relate to and want to share,” gnash explains. “I’m gonna keep making everything in my garage and if something else pops off huge, great – if not we’ll keep doing these tours and keep playing these shows and everything in that regard will get better.”

You can see gnash at The TLA this Saturday April 22nd. To hear much more, check out the full interview below.